In a major breakthrough for the forest officials, the Madhya Pradesh STF-wildlife has arrested one of the most notorious tiger poachers, Yarlen alias Luzalen alias Jasrat, who is wanted not only for killing tigers but also for his freakish fetish behaviour of hunting bears to eat their penises. According to reports, the Madhya Pradesh STF arrested the 30-year-old Yarlen ending a six-year chase to nab the notorious poacher.
In 2014, Yarlen had jumped bail and was pursued by police but he fell off the radar. However, the MP SIT did not give up and tracked him to a small cottage on the Gujarat-Vadodara highway, where he had settled down only recently.
The Madhya Pradesh forest officials have seized three fake voter IDs and Aadhar cards from the poacher. During interrogation, Yarlen admitted that he became a poacher at 15 and has since killed several tigers, sloth bears, hundreds of wild boars and peacocks. He had a unique ‘barter system’ with sarpanch of some villages to avoid their intervention and he would hunt wild boars and gift it to them to buy their silence.
The Madhya Pradesh STF was constituted by the MP forest department after the recovery of sloth bear carcasses with their reproductive organs missing. According to sources, Yarlen confessed that he killed many sloth bears to eat their private parts, as he believed it enhanced his sexual urge. Yarlen was wildlife STF’s first assignment.
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Reportedly, the role of a global syndicate that involves in the illegal trade of reproductive organs and gall bladders of male sloth bears is being investigated by the STF. “Yarlen has supplied to international markets, but his reach was up to Delhi and he is unaware of links across the border,” an STF officer said. He added, “Yarlen seems to have killed many bears on orders from a businessman. One of them is from Chhattisgarh,” said the officer.
Yarlen is being questioned over two bear kills near the buffer zone of Kanha Tiger Reserve and several others in Chhindwara, Betul and Burhanpur in 2014. Sloth bears are protected by Indian laws and listed as a ‘vulnerable species’ on the IUCN Red List.
However, it is believed that gall bladder bile and reproductive organs of these animals can cure cancer, chronic pain, asthma and sinusitis to boosting virility, leading to an increase in poaching of these animals. “Gall bladder bile is more expensive than narcotics in the black market,” said a report.
Experts state that bears are the only mammals to produce significant amounts of bile acid, Tauroursodeoxycholic (UDCA) and it has a high demand in countries like China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, the Republic of South Korea and Taiwan.
The SIT officials claimed that with the arrest of Yarlen, the mystery of the poaching of the tigress T13 has also been solved. According to the STF, poacher Yarlen also admitted that he killed tigress T13 in Pench Reserve. Her skin was found in Nepal, triggering one of the biggest cross-border manhunts. The disappearance of T13 had sparked a furore across the country. She was the last camera-trapped with its cubs in Raikassa area of Pench on February 28, 2012.
Earlier, another poacher Lodu Dime was arrested at Kathmandu airport on an Interpol red corner notice after being convicted in absentia by Nepalese authorities. The MP wildlife STF had suspected Dime’s involvement in the smuggling of tiger hides from MP. They had initiated talks with Interpol and Nepal police to have him extradited in connection with the poaching of T13. With Yarlen’s arrest, it will be easy for Indian authorities to seek extradition of Dime.
